Europe at the crossroad of the Covid-19 crisis: Integrated macroeconomic policy solutions for an asymmetric area

The economic crisis triggered by the COVID–19 pandemics raised once again doubts about the eurozone's ability to deal with common serious economic problems. The effects of the 2008 – 2009’s economic and financial crisis have not been completely exhausted, and a new crisis of yet unknown proportions emerged, bringing with it the traditional divergences between a common and integrated approach to problems and a country-based approach conditioned by Euro Area restrictive and asymmetric macroeconomic rules. This chapter aims at contributing to a paradigm shift in the governance of the eurozone towards a less dominant tendency for ruling according to the interests of the most powerful economies, namely Germany, and to a more comprehensive and integrated approach of the eurozone dissimilar dynamics and asymmetries, including the case of small economies like Portugal. Two dimensions of this need for a new paradigm of eurozone governance are considered. Firstly, the need for a change in the economic policy concerning the crisis recovery, from a supply-push to a demand-pull orientation, supported on a fiscal and monetary policy mix, integrated in a comprehensive macroeconomic approach. It is important to recognize the role of the ECB since the 2008 – 2009’s crisis and in the current context but also the need for a more active intervention of fiscal policy, both converging towards a growth-oriented policy. Secondly, the need for a shift in external relations towards a more global integration-oriented policy, with the Eurozone positioning itself as an alternative to the current polarization between the United States and China. Our conclusions point to the need to i) give priority to growth and employment; ii) promote long-term economic sustainability based on integrated macroeconomic policies, the reduction of income concentration and the reconstitution of strong middle classes; iii) reorientate international relations into a perspective of cooperation; iv) reinforce regulation and global governance; and v) eliminate exceptional situations, such as offshores, tax havens and other forms of economic controls escape.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Watching over innovation studies: Profiling the gatekeepers

Academic serials (especially peer-reviewed journals) play a very critical role in the scientific ecosystem and both integrity and independence are perceived as essential for good editorial governance (Rynes, 2006). For being responsible for articles selection (Bedeian et al., 2009; Feldman, 2008), elite board membership ensures the scientific quality of publications and “occupy key roles as opinion formers, gatekeepers and arbiters of disciplinary values” (Burgess and Shaw, 2010, p.630). So far, board elites have not been subject to a scrutiny proportional to their decision power (Burgess & Shaw, 2010) and an overall lack of transparency has been reported about the general editorial process despite of being actual gatekeepers (Miner, 2003; see also Bedeian et al., 2009; Horan et al., 1993).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The small world of editorships: A network on innovation studies

Editors exert a significant influence on journal's mission and governing the strategic direction of outlets. They are the channels gatekeepers not only by ensuring the quality but also by guaranteeing the integrity of novels produced. For being such an important piece of scientific puzzle, they are a research object of utmost interest which is rather fragmented. This paper aims to better understand the relationships between editors seated on boards of 20 innovation top-tiers. The sample considered comprised 2,440 editors occupying 3,005 editorial positions and assuming 122 different duties. No single journal is free from this interlocking editorship phenomenon and 18.6% of the scholars serve on multiple boards. We deploy social network analysis to further inquire and model the editorial relationships in which innovation journals are embedded. Our results offer new insights on how the field is organised: 627 lines linking the journals were found with a 41.6% interlocking density. Research Policy has the highest number of direct links to other boards (degree) and the shortest distance from all network journals (closeness) while Industrial and Corporate Change is the one bridging the largest number of other pairs of journals (betweenness), followed by Small Business Economics and Research Policy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rossby waves in rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

We predict and describe a new collective mode in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates, which is very similar to the Rossby waves in geophysics. In the regime of fast rotation, the Coriolis force dominates the dynamics and acts as a restoring force for acoustic-drift waves along the condensate. We derive a nonlinear equation that includes the effects of both the zero-point pressure and the anharmonicity of the trap. It is shown that such waves have negative phase speed, propagating in the opposite sense of the rotation. We discuss different equilibrium configurations and compare with those resulting from the Thomas-Fermi approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (submitted to PRL

Photon Orbital Angular Momentum and Mass in a Plasma Vortex

We analyse the Anderson-Higgs mechanism of photon mass acquisition in a plasma and study the contribution to the mass from the orbital angular momentum acquired by a beam of photons when it crosses a spatially structured charge distribution. To this end we apply Proca-Maxwell equations in a static plasma with a particular spatial distribution of free charges, notably a plasma vortex, that is able to impose orbital angular momentum (OAM) onto light. In addition to the mass acquisition of the conventional Anderson-Higgs mechanism, we find that the photon acquires an additional mass from the OAM and that this mass reduces the Proca photon mass.Comment: Four pages, no figures. Error corrections, improved notation, refined derivation